Economic Justice

"All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family, and serve the common good."

A Catholic Framework for Economic Life
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1996

Pope Francis sparked renewed conversations this week by re-iterating his call to address the “structural causes” of poverty and inequality in the world.

He told the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a gathering convened by the Vatican, that the effort to fight poverty “must be done with courage, but also with intelligence; with tenacity, but without fanaticism; with passion, but without violence." He pointed the assembled activists to the message contained in Matthew 25 – the Last Judgment - "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."

Edward "Ned" Dolejsi, Executive Director of the California Catholic Conference, issued the following statement in response to the passage of the Budget by the California Legislature yesterday:

“The budget sent to Gov. Brown last night may be a ‘sober’ budget, but it would be wrong to call it a ‘good’ budget. It pays the bills, it provides money for more effective public safety and human service programs at the local level, and there’s some money left over for a rainy day, but for a small, incremental investment, it could have been so much more,” said Dolejsi.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) are urging the Senate to defeat a proposal that would cost two million people around the world access to life-saving international food aid from the American people.

Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, released the following statement today concerning the Governor’s “May Revise” of the proposed 2014-15 State Budget:

“Two concepts seem to dominate Gov. Brown’s revised budget today: prudence and optimism. Prudence, because while the state’s budget outlook is the best it’s been in years, the recession isn’t over for everybody; and optimism, because we finally have the resources to begin making smart investments in California’s future.

Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favors human beings. - Evangelli Gaudium, Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis

While briefly celebrating California’s “comeback” from years of severe financial instability and recession, Governor Jerry Brown delivered a tempered State of the State address this week that was peppered with strong calls for prudence and fiscal discipline.

On the bright side, the Governor applauded the high points of the state’s recovery: “A million new jobs since 2010, a budgetary surplus in the billions and a minimum wage rising to $10 and hour!” But he cautioned, “We are not out of the woods yet.”

"Every economic and political theory or action must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one's own human potential. This is the main thing; in the absence of such a vision, all economic activity is meaningless." (Pope Francis in a Letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron for the G8 Meeting)

Five months is nothing in the life of an institution that "thinks in centuries" like the Catholic Church. So it's almost miraculous that Pope Francis has, in the short time since his election, amassed so much teaching on a single subject: economic inequality. This subject is also the focus of the 2013 Labor Day Statement by Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.